


Phonecall

by GinevraJ



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Drunk Dialing, Drunken Confessions, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Party, Post-High School, Truth or Dare, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:40:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27028243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinevraJ/pseuds/GinevraJ
Summary: Jihoon hasn't talked to Seungcheol in years, but he will have to call him out of the blue to tell him something... Just so he can keep his dignity in a Truth or Dare game.
Relationships: Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Lee Jihoon | Woozi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 118





	Phonecall

Jihoon was used to his friends’ parties, they used any opportunity to finally gather all together and celebrate something, anything. It was probably because they used to be the type of students that attended more parties than classes during college and they had to make up for all the parties they were missing now that they graduated. That time Jihoon had convinced them to just stay in, so they chose Jeonghan’s house to gather and celebrate Jisoo’s promotion. The music wasn’t too loud, and it was just him and his friends, they ordered pizza and they were drinking, talking loudly over each other and generally having fun. That was until Jeonghan spoke because he didn’t like the fact that there were different conversations going on at the same time. 

“Should we play a drinking game?” they all turned around to look at him, Jihoon chuckled, of course, it was Jeonghan. 

“No way, the last time we played ‘Never Have I Ever’ we almost took Soonyoung to the hospital and I didn’t get to drink almost anything,” Mingyu complained.

“Okay, so a different one.” 

“I don’t know any other, and I don’t want to learn new rules.” 

“Guys, let’s just play another game that we all know.” Jisoo followed. 

“All right, which one?” Seungkwan asked. 

“Easy, truth or dare,” Jeonghan said with a smile. 

“What are we, teenagers?” Jihoon rolled his eyes and grabbed a slice of pizza. “If you want to get drunk just drink, no need for a drinking game. And that’s not even a drinking game.” 

“It is if you’re a coward,” Jeonghan said with a smile.

“I think it’s a good idea, it’s been a long time since the last time I played,” Soonyoung said with a smile. 

“Really?” Jihoon looked around and saw that everyone was excited to play it, they seriously looked like they were still in college, even though all of them already graduated. “This is ridiculous, I haven’t played since high school.” 

“Don’t worry Jihoon, you’ll remember the rules pretty fast.” Mingyu teased him with a smile. 

“All right, I’ll start,” Jeonghan said as he got on the edge of his seat. “Soonyoung, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.”

“Okay, have you ever hooked up with anyone here?” 

“Oh, that’s an easy one, no,” Soonyoung answered with a smile. 

Jihoon raised one eyebrow, he always thought Soonyoung had a thing for Mingyu, he guessed that’s why Jeonghan asked in the first place. Mingyu didn’t look uncomfortable so he guessed Soonyoung was telling the truth. There weren’t too many people so it didn’t take long before it was Jihoon’s turn. Even if it was just the first round Jihoon had to witness Mingyu getting nervous while he said when was the last time he masturbated, Seungkwan trying to do a cartwheel while drunk, Jisoo drink the remaining of the bottle of vodka and Jeonghan counting with his fingers how many people he had hooked up with in college even though his boyfriend was right there. So they weren’t going soft in the first round. 

“Jihoon, truth or dare?” Jeonghan asked him. 

“Dare,” Jihoon replied absentmindedly. 

“For someone who didn’t want to play, you chose the hard one.”

“Yeah well, because I already know it’s going to be something dumb. The hardest thing you’re probably going to make me do is to kiss someone here, and I prefer that over being analyzed for secrets or something.” 

“Do you have secrets you’re keeping from us?” Jisoo asked. 

“None of your business,” Jihoon replied with a smile. 

“All right then, we’ll make it difficult, since you want a challenge.”

“I didn’t say that…” 

“Too late.” 

Everybody thought about it for a few moments until Jeonghan finally gasped, he had an idea, which was never good when it came to Jeonghan. 

“I know,” he said, making everybody in the room look at him. “You have to call the person you’ve most loved your entire life and tell them you love them.” all of them smiled at that idea, it seemed like a pretty good dare. 

“Okay, can I call my mom?” 

“No, it has to be romantic love.” 

“Well, I don’t know, I’ve never really _loved_ anyone.” 

“What? No way, there has to be someone.” Soonyoung asked confused. 

“Yeah, you’ve had boyfriends before.” Mingyu continued. 

“Yes, but I never actually loved them. They were nice, I don’t think I could say ‘I love you’ to them.” 

“Really? No one?” 

“It was kind of hard being gay in my hometown if you didn’t know. And by the time I actually knew I was gay I just started dating whatever guy I could. I guess it’s not something gay people go through, we don’t have that opportunity to meet someone and fall in love very often.”

“He doesn’t have to love you back, Jihoon. Just someone you loved. Who made you realize you liked men?” Soonyoung asked, and everyone saw the hesitation in Jihoon’s eyes, they all laughed as if they’d caught him red-handed. 

“Who was it?” Jisoo pushed. 

“Choi Seungcheol,” Jihoon answered and the picture of him was very clear in his head. 

“Who’s that?” 

“He was my neighbour.” 

“Oooh, the boy next door.” Jeonghan teased, which made everyone laugh, including Jihoon. 

“Did you watch him change through the window or something, like in that Taylor Swift music video?” Seungkwan asked with a smile, Jihoon laughed at that. 

“No, we were friends,” Jihoon answered slowly. “Our parents got along so we spent a lot of time together since we were literally next door.” 

_“Seungcheol, can’t we just stay home? My parents will kill me if they find out.” Jihoon said, looking down from his window, Seungcheol was standing in his backyard._

_“Are you kidding? They’re never going to come back to this town, this is probably our only chance, and my parents will get mad at me too, don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world. But it's fine because they won’t find out.” Seungcheol tried to encourage him, they’d been waiting for that concert for months and Seungchel didn’t want to miss it even though their parents told them they couldn’t go._

_“Just go without me, it’s fine.”_

_“No way, I’m not going without you, it won’t be the same.” Seungcheol shook his head and Jihoon rolled his eyes. “Come on, jump, it’s not that high, I’ll catch you.”_

_“Seungcheol, I don’t know…”_

_“Jihoon if you don’t jump right now I will climb up there and drag your ass down, I know you’re dying to go too.”_

_Jihoon sighed and gave in, he sat down on the window with his legs hanging, ready to jump._

_“This isn’t safe.”_

_“I’ll catch you, I promise.” Seungcheol placed himself right down where Jihoon was with his arms open._

_He sighed before he finally pushed himself and fell down right into Seungcheol’s arms, who caught him by the waist and left him on the floor carefully._

_“See? It wasn’t so bad, was it?” Seungcheol asked with a smile on his face, still holding Jihoon._

_“Yeah, it was fine,” Jihoon mumbled, suddenly noticing how close Seungcheol was._

_“Let’s go, I don’t want to miss the opening act.” Seungcheol grabbed his hand before they both started running to the venue._

He remembered they did get in a lot of trouble when their parents found out they sneaked out to go to that concert, but they still talked through their windows once they were grounded, and Seungcheol was right, it didn't really matter because that concert was so worth it. Now he didn't remember most of it, but he remembered Seungcheol's smile the whole time they were there and how close they were. 

“When did you know?” Mingyu prompted, Jihoon thought about it for a moment, he hadn’t thought about Seungcheol in a while. 

“Around high school I guess. I might have been fifteen at the time, so that’s when everyone started dating. But I didn’t want to date, I just wanted to keep spending time with him. He was very popular so he got a lot of girlfriends all of the time.” Everyone looked at him, expecting him to continue the story. “He always came to me every time he had a love problem. I think it was a slow process, there wasn’t a moment where it hit me and I just knew.” Jihoon took a pause and thought about how to end the story. “I never told him, obviously, because he was straight. And then I moved out to college and I lost contact with him. I came out to my parents and they don’t want to know a thing about me, so I never got the chance to go back home and see him. I haven’t seen him since the last day of high school.” they all looked invested in the story. 

“Did you love him?” Jisoo asked carefully, Jihoon thought about it for a moment. 

“I did, back then. But I haven’t seen him in so many years, I doubt he even remembers me.” 

“If you remember him, he probably remembers you too. Call him.” Jeonghan told him. 

“What? No, I don’t even have his number.” 

“We live in the internet age, I’ll find his number faster than you’ll make up your mind to call him,” Seungkwan said as he reached for his phone. “How many Choi Seungcheol’s that lived in your tiny hometown could there be?” 

“Guys, I don’t even… I don’t even like him anymore.” Jihoon tried to explain himself. 

“Yes, but that’s not the point. You’re not confessing for now, you’re not going to date him like you said, he’s straight, right? But what do you think it’ll feel like after you tell him that you loved him all those years?” 

“I have no clue.” 

“Don’t you want to find out?” 

“Honestly? No.” 

“Jihoon, come on. How many times have you thought about him ever since you left?” Jihoon faltered at that, he thought about Seungcheol every time he had a bad break up, because he knew he would be there for him if they were still friends. And he also knew that if they ever dated, Seungcheol would never be like the guys he liked. 

“Jihoon, you want to do it!” Mingyu screamed when he saw the hesitation in Jihoon’s eyes. 

“Found him!” Seungkwan exclaimed. 

Jihoon looked around and saw everyone waiting eagerly for him to finally give in and call him. He bit his lip and drank the remaining alcohol in his glass in one gulp. 

“All right, give me the phone.” all of them started cheering when they heard Jihoon. 

Seungkwan gave him the phone without hesitation and Jihoon took out his own to type out the number Seungkwan found. He felt his heart beat faster when he finished typing the number. 

“Okay, I’m not drunk enough for this,” he said as he took Mingyu’s drink beside him and also finished it off, Mingyu didn’t complain and everyone looked at him waiting. 

Jihoon bounced his leg and before he could regret it he pressed the call button. He raised the phone to his ear and almost immediately started hearing ringing. His heart was beating faster than he wanted it to be, and his friends’ eager smiles were not helping him. 

“What if he's not the one who answers?” he whispered. 

“You ask for him.” 

“Yeah, but…” 

“Hello?” he stopped talking as soon as he heard a deep voice on the other side of the line. 

“Uh, hey…” he panicked for a second before he finally knew what to say. “Am I speaking to Choi Seungcheol?” he almost wanted to slap himself when he realized he sounded like a telemarketer. 

“Yes, this is him.” Seungcheol sounded so confused over the phone, it almost made Jihoon more anxious. 

“Hey… It’s Jihoon,” he mumbled, all of his friends were smiling even wider now that they knew that Seungcheol picked up, if that was even possible. 

“Jihoon?” Seungcheol asked, which made Jihoon’s heart jump, almost thinking that he had forgotten him. “Oh my god, I haven’t heard that name in so long.” Jihoon smiled as soon as he realised Seungcheol was smiling through his words. 

“Yes, it’s been pretty long.” 

“What have you been up to?” 

“Uhm… I live in Seoul now, graduated college, working, you know, the usual....” he made a gesture to his friends so that they wouldn’t rush him. “I’m sorry it’s been so long… I’m sure you already know why I never went back.” Jihoon was sure his parents told Seungcheol’s parents what had happened, Seungcheol wasn’t in town the night he came out, but the screams could be heard all over the place, his parents knew, and they probably told him too. 

“Yeah… They told me.” Jihoon bit his lip and frowned, waiting for a bad reaction. “I’m sorry your parents reacted that way.” he sighed relieved when he heard that. 

“Tell him!” Jeonghan urged him in a whisper. 

“Well… I was just calling to tell you something…” Jihoon started to say. 

“What is it?” he took a deep breath before continuing. 

_“Well you didn’t love her, did you?” Jihoon asked with a smile after Seungcheol fell on his bed with a sigh, he’d just broken up with his new girlfriend._

_“No, but I liked her, I guess.”_

_“You guess? I don’t think you know what love is.” Jihoon rolled his eyes and looked at the book in front of him, Seungcheol was lying face down on the bed, next to him._

_“Isn’t that the name of a song?” he asked as he moved his head to the side to look at Jihoon._

_“Almost but no, it’s pretty old either way.”_

_“I guess you’re right, we’re just teenagers, we don’t know what that’s like, right?” Seungcheol asked as he sat up next to him._

_“Yeah…”_

_“You’ve never been in love, right?”_

_“No, I haven’t,” Jihoon answered absentmindedly. “At least not romantically.”_

_“Right, because I love my parents, but it’s different,” Seungcheol suggested. “I also love you,” Seungcheol said with a smile, Jihoon’s heart skipped a beat when he heard that._

_“What?”_

_“That I love you,” Seungcheol said as if it was nothing. “Why? You don’t?” he teased with a smile._

_“Yeah, I love you too,” Jihoon mumbled, knowing that they both meant completely different things._

“Jihoon? Are you still there?” Seungcheol’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. 

“Yes, yes, I’m still here.” 

“What is it that you wanted to tell me?” he asked again.

“I wanted to tell you that…” Jihoon took a deep breath and tried to remember where he got the courage that time all those years ago to tell him those three words. “I just wanted to say…” he looked at his friends and they all urged him to say it, moving their hands frantically and mouthing the words, trying to encourage him. “That I love you.” he finally blurted out. 

There was a moment of silence on the other side of the line and Jihoon completely panicked at that point. High on the rush of telling him that, he continued talking before Seungcheol could reject him, he still had a few seconds to enjoy that. 

“I know it’s probably not mutual and that it’s too late. You probably have a girlfriend, or… Or maybe you’re married.” he started rambling. “But I just had to let it out of my chest. You’re the one…” he faltered for a moment. “You’re the one that made me realize that I liked men and ever since then I have never loved someone as much as I loved you back then.” he sighed once he finished and all of his friends looked at him with proud smiles. 

He waited for a moment but Seungcheol still didn’t answer, they all looked at Jihoon puzzled, not knowing what was going on in the phone call. 

“Seungcheol? You still there?” Jihoon asked softly, scared that he would’ve hung up at that point.

“Yes.” Seungcheol finally answered, Jihoon tried to not get more nervous than he already was, but those two seconds of pause felt like an eternity. “Well, I’m not married, that’s for sure.” Seungcheol finally said, which made Jihoon chuckle. “And I don’t have a girlfriend.” 

Jihoon frowned when he heard that, what did he mean by that? Why did he have to let him know that he was single? He didn’t know how to answer that.

“Weird, since you used to have so many,” Jihoon said, trying to find something to say back, Seungcheol chuckled lightly. 

“Yeah, I haven’t… I haven’t really been dating as much as I did back then.” Seungcheol mumbled slowly. “I kind of regret it I guess. If I didn’t date as much maybe I could’ve spent more time with you.” Jihoon opened his eyes surprised, he really didn’t know where Seungcheol was going with all of that. 

“What’s going on?” Mingyu whispered, exasperated. 

“I don’t know.” Jihoon mouthed. 

“You’re in Seoul, right?” 

“Yes, I am.” Jihoon saw all of his friends freaking out and tried to calm them down and speak with Seungcheol at the same time, he should be the one freaking out. “Seungcheol, what do you mean by all of this?” 

“Well, uhm… Remember that time…? We were talking about love… And we said we loved each other?” Jihoon’s heart started beating faster at that moment if that was even possible. 

“Yeah, I remember.” 

“I really meant it Jihoon,” Seungcheol confessed, Jihoon opened his eyes surprised and saw all of his friends almost jump out of their chairs out of excitement, they didn’t hear Seungcheol, but his facial expressions were enough. “I’m not sure if I knew at the time but… I think about you a lot, Jihoon.” Jihoon sat there, mouth agape, not believing what he was hearing, as his friends celebrated right in front of him. “I just wish I had been there when… When you came out to your parents. I felt awful after they told me what had happened and all I wanted was to find you and tell you that it was okay and that we still had each other. But I don’t know if it was because you were too hard to find or because I was too scared, I never reached out.” Jihoon felt tears start to well up in his eyes, Seungcheol spoke again. “I’m sorry.” 

“You don’t have to apologize, I was the one who left.” all of his friends turned around when they heard him talk again.

“You had no other choice, I should’ve been a better friend.” Jihoon didn’t even think before he answered. 

“But I didn’t want you to be my friend,” he whispered, trying to block out his friends’ reactions.

“I’m in Seoul right now.” Seungcheol suddenly said. “I was actually at a bar with a few friends, celebrating… something, it doesn’t matter. I’m on the street now.” Jihoon frowned when he heard that. “Maybe we can see each other? If you’re not doing anything. You know… To hangout and… _Not_ be friends.” The last sentence sounded more like a question than a statement, which made Jihoon smile.

“ _Not_ friends sounds nice.” 

“For now. I just really want to see you again.” Seungcheol answered, Jihoon knew he was smiling, he knew him too well. “We can do it right this time.” 

“Yeah, we can.” 

“Great… I’ll send you the location, then?” 

“Yeah.” 

“All right, see you soon.” 

“See you,” Jihoon answered with a smile before he hung up.

“OH MY GOD!” Soonyoung exclaimed as soon as Jihoon hung up. 

“He confessed too, right? He said he loves you too.” Mingyu almost interrogated him by grabbing him by the shoulders.

“He didn’t _say_ it… But yes, he implied that he also loved me back then.”

“Back then? What about now?!” Jeonghan almost screamed. 

“He says he wants to meet me. I’m pretty sure it’s a date.” 

“Jihoon, you are _so_ lucky,” Seungkwan exclaimed, his friends were clearly freaking out more than he was, but Jihoon was just having the mental breakdown on the inside. 

“When are you meeting him?” Jisoo asked, almost as excited as everyone else, his phone vibrated at that moment. 

Jihoon looked down at the screen, he’d gotten a new message from an unknown number, which was Seungcheol’s. He clicked on the address and it showed him the route. 

“Apparently in twenty minutes if any of you drive me there because I’m too drunk to drive and forty if I walk.” 

“NOW?!” Soonyoung exclaimed, surprised. 

“I’ll drive you!” Jeonghan jumped at the opportunity. 

Jihoon was a little bit overwhelmed with his friends’ excitement. But he couldn’t blame them, he was also excited. He also couldn’t believe that was happening, he kept pinching himself, thinking it was a dream. Maybe it was a joke, maybe Seungcheol pranked him and sent him a random location. He kept tapping his foot and biting his nails once he was in the car with Jeonghan. It was almost 1 a.m. but he was going to meet his high school crush after all those years. 

“Calm down, it’s going to be fine.” 

“How do you know that?” 

“Well, that was the best phone call confession I have ever seen. It couldn’t have gone better, I’m sure it’ll be fine once you meet him.” 

“I haven’t seen him in like… Seven years? What if he’s a completely different person?” 

“He probably is, but for the better, not everyone wants to be like they were when they were seventeen,” Jeonghan said calmly. “So if you liked him back then you’ll like him even more now.” 

“What if he doesn’t like me and he just said all of that to not make me feel bad?” 

“Jihoon,” Jeonghan tried to calm him down. “You already had the ‘no’. You’re not going to lose anything by trying another time.” 

Jihoon sighed and as he saw they were getting closer to the place Jihoon’s heart started running faster. 

“Oh god, why did I agree to this? I want to throw up.” 

“Please do not throw up in my car… Or Seungcheol, for that matter. It will be fine, don’t worry.” 

He tried to calm himself in the remaining minutes, but as soon as the car stopped all of his anxiety came back.

“We’re here.” Jeonghan mumbled.

Jihoon looked up, it was late at night so there wasn’t anyone on the street, it wasn’t hard to see Seungcheol, he was leaning against the wall of a building while he looked at his phone absentmindedly. 

“Is that him?” Jihoon nodded slowly without moving his eyes away from Seungcheol, he seemed older, but somehow he looked just like the last time he saw him. “Jihoon, it’ll be fine. I’m gonna go, but if anything happens just text me and I’ll come to get you.” Jeonghan reassured him as he placed one hand on Jihoon’s knee. 

“Yeah…” Jihoon mumbled and finally moved his gaze to look at Jeonghan. “Thank you for driving me.” 

“No problem, I’ll just tell this story when I’m the best man at your wedding,” Jeonghan said with a smile, which made Jihoon chuckle. 

He hugged him tightly before he finally opened the car door and got out, he turned around just to see Jeonghan give him two thumbs up and wishing him good luck before he drove away. He looked back at Seungcheol, who was still looking at his phone distractedly. He walked up to him and stopped a few steps away. 

“Hey.” 

Seungcheol finally raised his head and looked at him, he didn’t say anything for a few seconds, and just looked at Jihoon as if it was a ghost. He smiled slowly before he finally spoke. 

“Wow,” he whispered. “It’s been so long I don’t even know what to say.” Jihoon smiled at him.

“Usually people start with ‘hi’.” Seungcheol chuckled lightly. 

“Right, yeah, hi.” Seungcheol stopped leaning on the wall and walked closer to Jihoon with a smile on his face. “You can’t imagine how happy your call made me. Why did you decide to call after so long?” Jihoon hesitated for a moment.

“You won’t like it.” 

“Try me.” 

“My friends dared me to call the one person that I loved the most and tell them I loved them,” Jihoon mumbled, he didn’t know why he was expecting Seungcheol to get mad because as soon as he finished that sentence Seungcheol laughed. 

“And you chose me…” Seungcheol said with a soft smile. 

“I wouldn’t have chosen anyone else.”

“I’m glad… Because me neither.” Seungcheol whispered before he approached Jihoon and hugged him tightly. Jihoon froze for a second but he closed his eyes and rested his head on Seungcheol’s chest as he moved his hands up to embrace him too. He truly missed him. They missed each other so much. And he was so happy that he didn’t have to miss him anymore. 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Jicheol anniversary! It's kind of short but I hope you all liked it :) Feedback is always appreciated and thanks for reading!


End file.
